1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic equipment having a detachable operation unit, and more particularly to a connector for making an electrical connection between connecting portions, an electronic equipment using the connector, and a control method for the electronic equipment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, various car audio apparatus such as a CD (Compact Disc) player, a DVD player, an MD (Mini Disc)player and an AM/FM tuner mounted in an instrument panel of a vehicle, and a car audio apparatus in which these are combined integrally or in which these are integrated with a navigation apparatus are used as electronic equipments. Also, there is a type having means for operating the electronic equipment by remote control.
In these car audio apparatus, operation functions tend to increase and the operation tends to become complicated, and many operation functions need be attached on an instrument panel, the area of which is limited. As a measure to this, various proposals have been made. For example, a system in which a plurality of operation units having operation keys are provided oppositely backward and forward in the front of a car audio apparatus and operation functions or display functions are distributed and provided to the respective operation units has been proposed. Further, a system for performing operation by remote control in addition to such an apparatus has been proposed.
Also, a system in which an operation unit can be detached from the car audio apparatus and carried around for preventing theft when the car is parked in a parking lot for a long time has been proposed.
When detaching the operation unit from the car audio apparatus, it is also required to disconnect the electrical connection. Normally, disconnection of terminals is conducted with some temporal differences. When the terminal for detecting detachment of the operation unit is disconnected with a delay from other terminals, the power to the CPU controlling the operation unit may be turned off before the power to other function portions such as display is turned off. Such the temporal differences cause a false display momentarily or an error in the initial settings. Hence, various measures have been required to prevent such failures.